2017 Ockham NZ Book Awards longlist announced
Victoria's Creative Writing graduates and staff make a strong showing on the new longlist.
The longlist for the 2017 Ockham New Zealand Book Awards features forty books, with staff or graduates of Victoria's International Institute of Modern Letters (IIML) well represented in the fiction, general non-fiction and poetry categories.
The Wish Child by MA in Creative Writing graduate Catherine Chidgey, and Dad Art, by IIML Director Damien Wilkins are longlisted for the Fiction prize, while Goneville: a memoir by recent graduate Nick Bollinger, and Can You Tolerate This? by graduate and Science Writing Workshop co-convenor Ashleigh Young are in the General Non-Fiction category.
The Poetry longlist includes graduates Tusiata Aviata (Fale Aitu | Spirit House); Hera Lindsay Bird (Hera Lindsay Bird); and Gregory Kan (This Paper Boat); and Beside Herself, by Senior Lecturer Chris Price.
Of the 40 longlisted books, 11 were published by Victoria University Press; including those by Avia, Chidgey, Lindsay Bird, Wilkins and Young.
'This country's publishing, and indeed its literature, is in rule good health,' says Nicola Legat, Chair of the New Zealand Book Awards Trust. 'If you are in any doubt about what you might read over summer, these 40 fine books are the place to start.'
The shortlist will be announced in March and the winners in May 2017, at the opening of the Auckland Writers Festival.